Ever since Julie Matsushima began raising the awareness of her colleagues in the Rotary Club of San Jose about problems faced by people with disabilities, the club has been moving inevitably toward creation of the Rotary PlayGarden at Guadalupe River Park and Gardens.

At least it seems that way in retrospect.

The PlayGarden is a $6.5 million gift to the community from the club, a legacy project on the occasion of its 100th anniversary.

Mike Blach, CEO of Blach Construction and president of the Rotary Club of San Jose, says the club began a process in 2010 of deciding what big project members would like to undertake to mark its anniversary.

"Thanks to Julie and our growing awareness of disabled and special needs kids, we decided we wanted to build an 'equal access' playground," he says.

It was in 1997 that Matsushima's twin granddaughters were born. One of the twins--Aimee--was diagnosed with irreparable brain damage. Unwilling to accept the grim prognosis of doctors, Matsushima traveled with Aimee all over the world seeking treatment and meeting other families with children who had disabilities. Matsushima's book, For the Love of Aimee, chronicles that journey and tells of Aimee's remarkable achievements.

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When she became president of the Rotary Club in 2008, Matsushima had a bully pulpit of sorts to educate fellow Rotarians about children with disabilities. As president she could designate a charity for a club donation, and she chose to donate 29 adaptive swings to the city of San Jose for installation at parks throughout the city. The Rotary Club Foundation donated $25,000 to purchase the swings.

But as Matsushima and her fellow Rotarians came to realize, accessibility is just the first step in making life better for those with disabilities as well as for those who are able-bodied.

One day when she took her granddaughters to a playground, she realized that her able-bodied granddaughter could play on the equipment, but Matsushima had to sit on the sidelines with Aimee. She realized that was unfair to all three of them.

Because of their growing awareness of the value of "inclusive environments," Rotarians decided the scope of access in the PlayGarden should be broadened to include disabled and able-bodied youngsters, but also disabled parents and grandparents with walkers--an inclusive intergenerational playground. "We wanted a parent in a wheelchair to be able to push his children in a swing or a grandparent with a walker to feel completely comfortable walking on the playground," Matsushima explains.

In fact, their decision to create a playground that serves everyone regardless of physical or sensory disabilities or age puts the Rotarians very much in tune with a movement that has picked up steam over the past decade or so toward inclusiveness and universal design.

In the 1950s, disabled veterans of two world wars created a need for and an awareness of barriers to access. What's more, people with disabilities were living longer, thanks to antibiotics and medical advances.

Over the next few decades, the disability rights movement grew, and with it, new legislation and greater awareness of barriers to employment, education and access for people with disabilities. In 1990, the Americans With Disabilities Act became law in the United States.

Architects were beginning to explore the subject of universal design--creation of everything from buildings to kitchen gadgets that not only looked good but served the needs of the entire population. The aging of the Baby Boomer generation spurred that movement on. In 1987, the World Design Congress decreed that designers should factor in aging and disabilities in design.

One landscape architect who had given a lot of thought to universal design in playgrounds was Karen Krowlewski of PGA Design in Oakland. She has been designing playgrounds for 17 years, but she says, "Until the Rotary Club's invitation to create a completely inclusive, intergenerational play area, the opportunity to do a truly universal playground never presented itself."

According to Blach, PGA Design was an obvious choice to design and build the play area. "They really grasped our vision," he says.

For Krowlewski, it was both an opportunity and a challenge: "Right away, it was clear to me that Rotary wasn't simply interested in making a playground that was ADA compliant. They wanted something custom."

She knew she would have to dig deeply into the subject and began attending conferences and creating a network of people with expertise in inclusive playgrounds. She found many studies have been done on play for youngsters with physical disabilities, but practically nothing on play for children with sensory disorders--and Rotary had made it clear that they wanted children with autism to be comfortable at the PlayGarden. That would mean areas where autistic children could play side by side with others, but also quiet places when they needed that.

In addition to stepping up her research, Krowlewski decided right away to bring Ron Holthuysen into the project. Holthuysen is an artist/fabricator (an artist with the ability to build, according to Krowlewski). His company, Scientific Art Studio, based in Richmond, has done projects all over the world, specializing in museum exhibits, including the earthquake simulation at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. His company also created a number of iconic features at AT&T Park in San Francisco, including the four-fingered glove that sits atop the ballpark and the Coca-Cola bottle slide.

"I brought Ron into the project," she says, "because he brings a new level of creativity to it."

She also consulted with Pamela Wolfberg, a specialist in play for autistic children.

Among the features to be included in the PlayGarden: an earthen mound that will function as a buffer between the new parking lot and the play area and will host multiple embankment slides. Sliding hill will have stair access with handrails, stone climbing access, as well as a pathway that is wheelchair accessible. Slides will be different heights to accommodate user abilities.

There will be raised sand and water tables as well as ground level accessibility, and slough areas that will lead to a labyrinth planted with miniature fruit trees. There will also be native California grassland with mowed paths for exploration, to name just a few of the innovative features.

Rotarians knew what they wanted, and they were confident they had the right people involved to make it happen. They also needed to figure out where to put the PlayGarden.

From the beginning the Rotary Club worked with Evelyn Velez-Rosario, parks director for the city of San Jose. After considering a number of sites, Velez-Rosario says, Guadalupe River Park and Gardens made the most sense.

By earmarking some $1.4 million for construction of the project, the city is able to leverage limited dollars toward its master plan to develop Guadalupe River Park and Gardens as a regional destination--the city's own version of New York's Central Park.

The city was also attracted to the universal design of the PlayGarden. "This will be a universally accessible playground, not just for kids but for parents and grandparents. Many war veterans are returning, and many of them have various disabilities," Velez-Rosario says. "This will be for them, too."

Locating the PlayGarden at Guadalupe River Park and Gardens makes sense because the park offers many other opportunities and places to explore. Additionally, each year, some 4,500 children come to the park for structured programing.

"Lately," says Leslee Hamilton, executive director of the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, "we've been expanding our program to special needs kids."

Although Rotarians like the idea of disabled and able-bodied children playing side by side at the PlayGarden, some experience with inclusive play areas has shown that this kind of interaction isn't as easily accomplished as might be hoped, according to Krowlewski. "In Los Angeles, groups have formed to help disabled and able-bodied kids feel comfortable with each other," she says.

Hamilton is aware of this issue and says they're already on it. In 2009, a graduate student working in the area of special needs recreation asked Hamilton if she could use the conference room at the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy for work she was doing.

"I watched what was going on, and I was completely won over," Hamilton says. "There's a growing call these days to let special needs children integrate with able-bodied kids."

To that end, she plans to hire the woman as a contractor to train the staff and volunteers so they can help facilitate play between special needs and other kids.

The Rotary Club has been raising funds for the 4.1-acre PlayGarden and has reached the halfway point with grants and commitments by individual members. "We're now looking to the community for gifts of all sizes," Blach says. The club hopes to get through the permit process so construction can begin in the fall.

The club marks its 100th anniversary in March 2014 and hopes to welcome the community to the grand opening of the PlayGarden next summer.